La Mesa, CA Sign Regulations: Window Signs (2026)

LMMC § 15.10.040(d)(9) sets three layers of standards for temporary window signs at commercial and industrial establishments in the C, CN, CD, CM, M and RB zones. The coverage cap is forty percent of the total window area for each window or glass door on the business frontage. The height rule confines temporary window signs to ground-floor windows of multi-story buildings, and only establishments actually located on the ground floor may use them; a second-floor tenant cannot post a window sign at all under this provision.

The construction standard limits materials to signs, placards or other advertising made of paper, cloth, paint or other expendable material affixed to the interior of a window or glass doorway, which excludes permanent vinyl or rigid panel window displays from this temporary category. Finally, the display-time rule caps any temporary window sign at sixty consecutive calendar days without replacement or removal, after which the establishment must swap the copy or take it down. This is distinct from the permanent window sign allowance in § 15.10.040(d)(8), which caps permanent window signs at twelve square feet per establishment frontage and bars internal illumination except exposed neon.

The seasonal exception for holiday decorations, letting coverage rise to seventy-five percent for up to forty-five days a year, sits inside this same coverage clause but is a distinct, narrower allowance layered on top of the standard forty percent, sixty-day rule described here.